Our Mastermind Group

"Dedicated to the relentless pursuit of innovation within the financial services and non-profit communities"

Nicholas Gregory, ChWE, CEBA, ChCCA, ChFWA — Founder, Managing Partner and CEO
Having founded The Wealth Engineering Institute back in 1996, Mr. Gregory and his colleagues have utilized the Institute’s WealthEngineering™ Platform and a plethora of other resources to engineer the core entities that make up the Wealth Engineering Family of Companies as an ecosystem for families and their businesses and their advisors. In addition to The Wealth Engineering Institute, this consortium of entities includes The Charitable Capital Design Center, The Wealth Engineering Hub, The Family Business Hub and EBenefits Hub. The vast array of services of our Family of Companies are harmonized to surround the ever-changing needs of managers of wealth and their clients. Nick and his colleagues have also founded Give Back Nation, a non-profit organization, which functions as a national community foundation to create even bigger waves of giving across the nation. Mr. Gregory holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Ball State University with minors in Economics and Finance. Mr. Gregory is a member of the Financial Planners Association, The Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, The Charitable Capital Advisory Council and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Give Back Nation.

Kyle C. Gregory, ChCCA — President of Give Back Nation, a non-profit organization
Kyle and several other entrepreneurial philanthropists developed Give Back Nation as a national community foundation serving hundreds of non-profits on a concierge services basis as well as thousands of giving Americans and their causes. Kyle Gregory has held management positions with UPS, Lowes and The Bank of New York Mellon. Using his vast array of management experience and dedication to “giving back”, Kyle helps great causes expand their fight while creating a “circle of winning” within communities across the nation. Kyle received his bachelors degree in Business Management from the University of Central Florida. He is a member of The Charitable Capital Institute.

Rodney Zeeb JD, HDP™ — ​Founder and CEO of The Heritage Institute
A self-proclaimed recovering estate planning attorney, Rod Zeeb is passionate about training advisors. The Heritage Institute training is radically different from the college and continuing education to which professionals have become accustomed. Rod is passionate about training professionals to deliver what clients actually want, a plan that meets the financial needs of the family while preparing the family for the inevitable surprises that come with implementing an estate plan.
With a casual speaking style and an easy-going persona, Rod has been invited to speak nationally and internationally at events including MDRT, NAIFA, AFP, National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, Securities Industries and Financial Markets Associations (SIFMA), NAPFA Advanced Planners/Larger Firm Initiative, United Way of America  National de Tocqueville Conference, Pershing’s INSITE Conference, FPA (national and regional groups), International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy, and many others. 
Rod is also the author of Beating the Midas Curse (now in its 3rd Edition) and Family Stewardship, and he is co-author of the novel What Matters.

John Pileggi — CEO of Strategic Innovations Advisors LLC
John Pileggi is an Executive Manager of Global and Diverse Financial Services Organizations, including Investment, Wealth & Asset Management, Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, Collective Funds, Banking, Trust, Retirement, Insurance, Alternatives (Hedge & Private Equity), Brokerage, Crowd Funding, Donor Advised Funds, Financial Planning and FinTech. John Pileggi's Specialties: Retail and institutional financial services including brokerage, wealth management, hedge funds, mutual funds, banking and asset management.

Oleg Tishkevich — Chief Executive Officer of Invent®
Oleg Tishkevich is the founder and CEO of Invent®, a leading cloud-enabling software development firm. Prior to founding Invent®, Tishkevich founded Finance Logix, a next generation financial planning software company which sold to Envestnet in 2015.
Finance Logix has pioneered an engaging mobile planning app Retire Logix that was named Best Money Move by Money magazine and voted number one mobile app for advisors. At Finance Logix, Tishkevich led the development team that delivered custom firm-wide solutions for companies such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Assetmark, Janney Montgomery Scott and other major firms.

Adam Ponder — Chief Executive Officer of Alta Trust
A​dam is co-founder and CEO of Alta Trust. Prior to Alta Trust, he co-founded and successfully exited RIA and TPA firms. Now, he is recognized as a leader in the financial services industry who brings innovative ideas to the investment community. His dynamic scope of experience allows him to provide strong strategic guidance to investment advisors. Adam is passionate about helping investment advisors do the right thing for their clients and themselves. Adam craves win-win deals where everyone walks away smiling. Adam, his wife, Nicole and their four kids live in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

Daniel A. Kreuter — C​EO of Gladstone Group Inc.
Gladstone Associates, established in 2006, provides M&A advisory solutions to the national RIA sector, encompassing Wealth Managers and Asset Managers. As Founder of Gladstone, Dan shares in setting firm vision and strategy, works with Enterprise Clients, and oversees all operational and branding functions. Dan is also founder of D.A. Kreuter Associates, Inc. (“DAK Associates”), a national retainer-based executive search firm with decades of search success (2,500+ searches) on behalf of the global financial services community. He co-founded two successful FinTech Businesses, Coates Analytics (now BNY/Mellon Distribution Analytics) which provides productivity software on behalf of Money Managers and Advisory Platforms; and Gladstone Analytics (sold to Truelytics, purchased by Envestnet in 2022), a SaaS solution for Valuation analytics, benchmarking and business process improvement to the RIA space. Dan recently served as Chairman of the Advisory Board for Chalice Financial Network, a national peer-to-peer association group for Independent Advisors; and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Real Assets Adviser, a leading Alternative Investments publication with over 65,000 readers in the wealth management sector. He currently serves on the Advisory Counsel for AlphaTrAI, a San Diego-based AI/Machine Learning quantitative asset manager.

Darren Sugiyama  — Founder & CEO of Lionsmark Capital
Prior to Lionsmark, Darren founded DaVinci Financial & Insurance Associates, a multi-office life insurance firm. Darren is the acclaimed author of How I Built A $37 Million Insurance Agency In Less Than 7 Years, along with eight additional published books distributed internationally, including Premium Financed Life Insurance - The Key To Effective Estate Tax Planning, and is also a nationally acclaimed motivational speaker. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Loyola Marymount University, and a M.Ed. in Multicultural Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Darren is married and currently lives with his wife and son in Orange County, California.